To drop out: Michele Bachmann, a Tea Party-backed congresswoman for Minnesota, from the race to be chair of the House Republican Conference. The position will go to Jeb Hensarling, a congressman from Texas who has the support of the Republican establishment.

To stay in: Nouri al-Maliki, a secular Shiite who, according to a tentative agreement reached last night after an eight-month impasse, will serve a second term as Prime Minister of Iraq, despite failing to secure the majority vote in the election. Ayad Allawi, who had support from Sunni Arabs and fought Maliki staying in power, would be the speaker in Parliament. And Jalal Talabani, a Kurdish leader, would stay the President.

To continue? The Bush-era tax cuts, according to David Axelrod, who told the Huffington Post that the only way to assure tax cuts for the middle class, it seemed, would be to give in on renewing tax cuts for the wealthy.